Mending Sakura Haruno
by THA musIc GuY
Summary: AU. When an unknown person makes her the center of an absolutely atrocious scandal, Sakura Haruno isn't able to find the fact that would prove the falsehood of the entire ordeal, and watches her acting career begin to crumble down. Witnessing her situation, Ino decides to call the only suitable person she knows to help her... and he's one of Konoha's foremost actors. NaruSaku.


****-█**Mending Sakura Haruno█-**

* * *

_Grey August_

* * *

Ino had never anticipated such an event.

To think that someone would fall so low, was to believe that inhumanity was an integral part of the human psyche.

She'd seen Sakura pass through a plethora of phases in her life, and often expressed her wonder at the manner in which the roseate was able to carry herself. The latter's grace had enticed the entire industry, and directors had come flocking to her doorstep, endeavouring to get her to act in their respective projects.

She'd seen her rise to fame, become the starlet the mere mention of whose name was capable of bringing an incredibly large number of declarations of love, from, obviously, a incredibly large number of men who were unfathomably infatuated with her.

However, the phase of Sakura's life that she was experiencing presently, was what disturbed her, and made every single inch of her being tremble with anger.

She didn't need to think twice to understand that she had an urge to kill the guy who'd done this, and that she'd strive to find him out and go beyond the point of having no mercy to destroy his life, when she looked at her friend...

...who was presently sitting on the floor, with her back against the door of her apartment's refrigerator, smirking dementedly and very drunk. Her iPhone lay broken beside her foot, a sign which indicated the degree to which the infinite questions which she'd been flogged with had effected her mind. Her hair was unwashed, and her face, unclean. The clothes which covered her slender frame, were ones that she hadn't got out of for about a week.

"Sakura," Ino's voice was soft, "You have to clean yourself up."

A loud laugh echoed through the kitchen.

Ino frowned.

"Sakura-"

"S-stop with that, Pig," cut in a broken voice, "T-There's no_fink_ wr-wrong with me."

Another laugh.

Ino sighed. Effective communication had already commenced becoming a distant dream.

She'd thought about contacting a psychologist, but she'd considered otherwise. The way things were at present, she didn't believe that she could believe anyone to not facilitate a plunging, on the part of the roseate, to even graver depths.

She heard the buzz of the television which was switched on, in the drawing room. A program on the latest disastrous wave of posts which had shot up in the glitzy world of the Konohan film industry was playing.

Sighing, she turned on her heel, her brain tingling with the atrocious comments about Sakura the guy had spread with the help of some of the big hands in the industry, and led to the starting of this entire ordeal. An insidious plan had begun to form in the space of her mind, however, Ino couldn't, even as the Vice-Captain of the Konohan Defense Squad, start with anything concrete until she'd gathered some proof.

_And as of the present, we don't even know the names of the sick bastards._

Her frown had turned even darker by the time she picked up the remote to switch off the television.

That's when her ears caught on the name.

"Why didn't I-"

With widened eyes, she stared at the screen.

He would undeniably have offered to help, if he'd only been in the country. Her preoccupations had made her mind skim almost unreservedly over the fact.

Pulling out her cell-phone, she began to surf through her contacts.

The ghost of a smile fell upon her lips.

* * *

The voice of Ino speaking on her phone lulled to Sakura's ears.

Emerald eyes stared at the ceiling through half open lids, devoid of expression. Perceptibility had never been the roseate's weak front, however, how she had managed to get herself into such a fix was what traumatized her the most.

Swinging the bottle to her lips, she drank a considerable amount of the fluid. Her insides were warm, hot even, but she didn't have any qualm. She hated the fact that she'd been reduced to such a pitiable state. She'd felt trepidation before, but now, it was all vague.

It was, she believed, quite ironical that her state was not very unlike that of some of the characters she'd portrayed in her films.

Clichéd dialogues, scripts, ill-tempered directors... she'd been through them all. She'd faced it valiantly, and had always come out victorious.

She'd known that, at the end of the day, they just wanted to bank on her popularity.

They needed her, and not the other way around.

She almost smiled at how wishful it all seemed at present.

"Listen, I'll have to go out, Shikamaru says he's found a sort of lead. We'll have to start somewhere on the case, and this is as good as any."

Sakura nodded bleakly, not attempting to look at Ino directly.

A second later, the blonde woman was beside her, staring, she knew without turning, intently at her face.

"We'll catch the guy, Sakura. He'll regret those disgusting false reports."

The roseate tried to form a smile.

Quite unsurprisingly though, as had been the case off late, she failed.

_So much for being an actress._

* * *

Just as Ino exited the building, she hung up on her last phone call.

She'd expected no less from him. She wholly believed that no one was a better friend of Sakura's than he.

Climbing into the police sedan that was waiting for her, the Yamanaka asked the driver to take her to the Central Police Station of Konoha. Shikamaru had informed her of a lead; something that had the potential to finally throw some light on what had gone into the making of the entire incident.

However, her concerns had found refuge elsewhere.

He was her sole hope at present.

And she sincerely wished that he'd be the one to deliver Sakura out of her situation.

* * *

Sakura's mind didn't completely register the sound the door made on being opened. The bottle that she'd drained last lay a couple of inches away from her, and she was already starting to feel the hotness begin to recede within her. She didn't want that. She wanted to stay the way she was.

On the verge of oblivion. As far away from reality as she possibly could.

Turning around, she got on all fours, and began to try to stand up. She failed quite awkwardly the first couple of times, and deemed it inexplicable. Her vision was clearing, the fogginess waning. She thought it was unnatural for her to not be able to properly perform an action as simple as standing up.

Hence, with a sudden burst of the minute quantity of energy she had left within herself, she pushed herself off the ground...

...and almost immediately after she neared the state of standing up, began to feel her legs wobble.

"Sh-shit-!"

But she didn't fall.

She blinked.

The palms were warm.

Vaguely understanding that she'd been caught by someone, she gulped down the anxiety that she'd felt a moment earlier when she'd been on the verge of falling. Taking a wobbly step, she tried to leave the grasps of the hands on her shoulders.

"T-Thanks."

The motion was a reluctant one, but the person that was holding her finally let go, and she stumbled for a second, before being able to find a more or less secure footing.

Deciding that it would probably be rude to not express her gratitude in a proper manner, she turned around.

She thought of trying for the smile again.

But as soon as she saw the face of the person, all thoughts left her.

Blonde spiky hair. The handsome face that had been declared the best in the industry that year. The woody fragrance.

That smile.

She blinked at a tremendous speed, not being able to believe that he was there, standing before her.

"You're doing that disbelief-thingy again, ya know."

His voice was sunny. It wasn't a mistake after all.

She gulped, staring at him.

"_Naruto_?"

* * *

**And there begins my new story. :D**

**What do you guys think? :D **

**~THA musIc GuY**

**Leave a review, please! :D :3  
**


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